<p style=”text-align: center; “><a href=”/images/in-posts/house.png”><img alt=”” border=”1″ class=”floatRight” height=”115″ src=”/images/in-posts/house.png” width=”115″/></a></p>
<p>Yeah, yeah. I’ve been terrible. Moved and crushing amount work. I even feel like I’ve been neglecting Facebook!</p>
<p>What’s going down:</p>
<ul>
<li>Yes, we moved. About a half mile down the street. House from the 40s, needs some serious TLC, but having room to move around is nice… and weird at the same time. I’ve been sharing cramped quarters for a long time. Garage, backs to the woods, right next to the trail, nice neighbors. Come on over for some grillin’! In moving this time, we discovered the magic that is moving companies. We moved me, I got injured (more on that later), we hired two guys to move her stuff, and it was done painlessly in two hours for about $200</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I got hurtie. I’ve twisted my left knee a handful of times this year, it’s been a little sore constantly, I ran ten miles the day before moving my apartment, and I basically blew it up by moving. I was barely able to walk for about two weeks and still feel a bit of pain. Wasn’t able to run for a month, and had to ride lightly for that month as well. MRI showed nothing but inflammation. Doctor thinks my kneecap hasn’t been tracking correctly and gave me a brace. I wore that for about a week before it stunk. It was only making my knee worse, anyway. So… $1050 in deductible and a brace later and I would have been just fine resting it. Two weeks removed from serious resting and I’m putting in some good work again, but am taking it very slowly (see image for working out time per week). The good news is it allowed me to see inside this knee, which I badly damaged about a decade ago in a skiing accident… Seems to have healed perfectly and other than the current issue is in great shape! With bad knees in the family, it’s nice to have that knowledge.</li>
</ul>
<p style=”text-align: center; “><img alt=”” border=”0″ height=”134″ src=”/images/in-posts/strava_recovery2.png” width=”333″/></p>
<ul>
<li>Mom continues to fight her amazing fight. She went through yet another set of scans with her cancer progressing 0! Couldn’t ask for anything better! With marriage and all that stuff, I haven’;t been able to visit her as much as I’d like to, but I think I’m going to be able to get down there for two weeks in the next two months!</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Marriage keeps on getting better. Not much more to say here. It isn’t always rainbows, but I feel Heather and I continue to grow closer and stronger with each day.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I have resurrected <a href=”http://www.mugsbymike.com”>my photography site</a>. Made $8 on the last event that I shot. Woohoo!</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I performed the biggest IT task of my <a href=”http://www.itbymike.com”>IT By Mike</a> career. A client’s aged server started acting up and needed to be replaced. Working with small business is both a blessing and a curse as I found out with this job. A large company’s infrastructure is very similar to a small one’s in that there are basic server function that need to be done no matter what size your business. Well, a large company will have one machine per function. When one goes on the fritz, it’s a trivial task to replace it. A small company, however, has one machine that performs all of these strange/difficult/large tasks. When it goes, you need to migrate each one of those functions at once. Needless to say, it’s a bear of a job. It turned out to be a full weekend job (including Friday night) and went into the next week as there were loose ends to tie up. The important part is that no productivity was lost. Folks left working on the old server on Friday and returned working on the new server on Monday. There were dozens of unforeseen hurdles, which while unforeseen are to be expected due to the complexity of the systems involved, but Google and some luck got me through it all. This job also made me realize that the life of an IT guy is not for me. More on that in a post… maybe this week?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Partly thanks to the server migration, I went ahead and upgraded my <a href=”http://www.bikepedia.com/quickbike/BikeSpecs.aspx?Year=2005&amp;Brand=Giant&amp;Model=TCR+2&amp;Type=bike”>pretty darned old road bike</a> to a more or less <a href=”http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?Year=2011&amp;Brand=Cervelo&amp;Model=R3%20Rival&amp;Type=bike#.UChOO2Oe7mI”>brand spanking new one</a>. It was bought new by an older gentleman who fell ill just after purchase and was only able to put a couple dozen miles on it. I found it on eBay and snatched it up, savings over four figures. When the bike arrived, I wasn’t even able to find signs that the bike was ridden at all. I still need to get professionally fit on it, but I’ve got it pretty close and absolutely love it. Going from aluminum to carbon makes a world of difference in everything that matters — weight, stiffness, and comfort. I’d heard folks tell me how much I was missing out, but never gave it much care… I regret that now.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>My review of the restaurant we had our engagement night dinner at won the Yelp review of the day. Apparently it’s a pretty big deal that serious Yelpers really sweat. I had no idea what it was until I “won.” It meant my face on the front of the Yelp page for the day and nothing else so I’m not sure what the fuss is about. Regardless, cool to be recognized for something.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>All of my non-athletic goals for the year are on great pace. The athletic ones were in good shape (aside from swimming, which I still think might be doable) until my injury. I’ll try to get the running back, but it might not happen. The biking goal will be easy.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I haven’t really done much racing due to the injury and life in general. I did run a 5K early in the summer in post-injury (the one that had me out for years… not the new knee one) record pace of 19:15. Only about 30 seconds off my adult best, which had me pretty pumped for the racing season… And then the knee… Le sigh.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I’ve been reading Game of Thrones. Got through Book 1, then watched Season 1. Now reading Book 2. Absolutely love it. Why I didn’t hear of it until it came to HBO, I’ll never know. I’m a bit saddened to realize there are so many amazing books out there that I don’t know of and/or will never be able to read. With movies, at the very least, the end is in sight (Netflix queue reduced by 25% already this year). Yeah, I’m a whore to checking things off.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Work has been rather interesting and exciting. Suffice to say, it’s going very well. I owe a post on this subject in the coming weeks.</li>
</ul>
<p>Sorry for the posting interval. Won’t happen again… I hope.</p>